Close Inspection: Magnum Contact Sheets

No document gives greater insight into how a photographer shoots and edits than a contact sheet—the direct print, from a roll or negatives, where a film photographer often first sees her work, grease pencil in hand, and marks her best frames. A new book from Thames & Hudson collects a hundred and thirty-nine notable contact sheets made by Magnum photographers, from the nineteen-thirties to the present, some of which are currently on view at the International Center of Photography. “One rarely expresses in words all the random thoughts that run through one’s head except maybe a psychoanalysts couch, and yet the contact sheet spares neither the viewer nor the photographer,” Martine Franck writes in the book. “By publishing that which is most intimate, I am taking the very real risk of breaking the spell, of destroying a certain mystery.” Sometimes, though, the mystery only deepens. Here’s a selection of contact sheets (which can be clicked for a larger view) and final prints.